Reunion
by HalfBlood91
Summary: It all started at a Hogwarts reunion. Now Hermione is stuck with someone she can't stand. DracoHermione.
1. It all started at a Hogwarts reunion

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Harry Potter or anything Harry Potter related. How long will it take you to understand that?

**A/N:** Yay, my first Harry Potter story. As in: I actually get to update this one! This story isa Draco/Hermione story, with some Ron/Luna, Harry/Pansy and Ginny/Seamus. I don't think very many people pair Pansy and Harry together, but I'm trying it out. Please don't hurt me! Flames are excepted, and of course, so are reviews. I would really like it if anyone who reads this puts in their opinion, because I liked the idea for the story, I and really want to know what people think. Thanks.

* * *

When Hermione returned home from an afternoon out with her friends, she found an owl sitting on her kitchen table. It clicked it's beak importantly, and patiently held out it's foot. Attached was an envelope of thick yellowish parchment, and on the front was written 'Ms. Hermione Granger' in glittering green ink. Taking the envelope from the owl, who turned and flew out of the open window, Hermione smiled. It was sealed with the Hogwarts crest.

"Of course," she muttered as she walked into the living room and sat on the couch. Hermione opened it quickly and sat reading the letter, which was written in the loopy handwriting she had become so used to seeing.

_Dear Ms. Granger,_

_We are pleased to inform you that Hogwarts is having a reunion for your class on June 29th. To make this feel more realistic, you are riding the Hogwarts Express. The train leaves at 11 o'clock. We are expecting everyone to come, so make sure that you won't be late._

_Thank you,_

_Albus Dumbledore _

_(Headmaster of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry)_

Hermione's raised her eyebrows in surprise. "A reunion?" she thought out loud. "I don't think Hogwarts has ever had a reunion before." She glanced through the letter again. "June 29th. I'd better go write it down." Hermione made her way back into the kitchen and over to her calendar. Luckily she had nothing planned on that day and in small, neat handwriting, she wrote, 'Hogwarts Reunion - 11:00'.

She set the letter down on the kitchen counter and walked back into the living room just in time to see Pig collide into the window. Rushing over, she pulled the window open and grabbed the small bird. He too, had a letter tied to his foot, and once Hermione had taken it off of him he started rocketing around the room.

This time it was a letter from Ron, asking yet again if she had seen his broomstick. A small postscript at the bottom also asked if she had heard about the reunion yet. Hermione scribbled a quick response, saying that no she hadn't seen his broomstick and that yes she had heard of the reunion. Tying it back onto Pig, she watched as he flew off, this time successfully clearing the house without hitting anything.

Sighing, Hermione started cooking dinner, and after that went upstairs to read a book and then go to bed.

* * *

A week had passed since Hermione had received the letter, and the reunion was tomorrow morning.

Hermione was sitting on the end of her bed, thinking. The letter didn't say anything about spending the night anywhere, so she didn't need to pack anything. She had thought about bringing a book with her, but then decided not to because she was going to be busy hanging out with the people in her class. She frowned. What was she getting worked up about?

Hermione had been finding it hard to stop thinking about the reunion over the past few days. It didn't make things better that she had a feeling something big was going to happen during the reunion. After worrying about it for a few hours more, Hermione shrugged her shoulders and got ready for bed. She still couldn't shake off the feeling that at Hogwarts, something was being planned. Not for the first time, Hermione fell into a restless sleep, only to be woken seven hours later by her alarm clock.

* * *

The taxi ride to Kind Cross Station did nothing for her nerves. Halfway through the ride, Hermione started wondering why she didn't just Apparate there. That's what Harry and Ron had decided to do, but no: she had wanted to ride the muggle way, and now she was going to be late because they were stuck in traffic, again.

When she finally reached the Station, it was nearing 11 o'clock. She fought her way through the crowd of people exiting from platforms 9 and 10, and managed to slip onto Platform 9 ¾ with two minutes to spare. She looked around and finally spotted Ron and Harry talking with Dean and Seamus towards the outside edge of the crowd. Making her way over, she ran into someone.

"Hey, watch where you're going!" Someone snapped at her.

"I'm sorry," Hermione muttered, not quite stopping to officially apologize.

"Well, if it isn't Mudblood Granger," the same voice said, only this time there was no mistaking who it belonged to. Hermione stopped and turned around to face him, only to see that his face held little to no malice, and he seemed only to be joking around.

"Ferret boy," she answered with a small nod of recognition. He was about to open his mouth and say something else when the train's whistle blew. He contented himself with nodding back at her before turning and boarding the train. Hermione found herself somewhat disappointed that she hadn't gotten to say hi to Ron or Harry yet, but upon boarding she quickly found them.

They sat in their usual compartment near the back, and after a few minutes Neville, Seamus and Dean joined them. The boys quickly started talking about Quidditch and the upcoming match between the English and Irish teams. Hermione soon fell asleep, bored with their talk.

They arrived at Hogwarts at around dusk. Now that school was out for summer, and because the train had just been used the day before, the Hogwarts Express seemed to be moving faster than it had during their school days. Neville, Harry, Ron and Hermione piled into a carriage (all of them could see the Thestrals now because of the war) and headed up to the school. Before anyone could approach the doors and knock, they opened to reveal Professor McGonagall.

She waited for everyone to gather around the doors before saying, "I'm glad everyone could make it tonight. I hope that none of you had to cancel previous plans. If you would follow me please, we're going to the Great Hall." With that she turned and started walking towards the Great Hall, with everyone pouring inside and following her.

The Hall was decorated much like it had been at the Yule Ball during 4th year. There were a bunch of small circular tables placed randomly around the room, instead of the four House tables. The ceiling was lit up with tons of candles, and the room smelled like summer, if that was even possible. Everyone grabbed their friends and sat down at a table, waiting for instructions.

Up at the staff table, Dumbledore stood and waited for the Hall to quiet down, which happened fairly quickly. He picked up a menu identical to the ones sitting on the tables, and stated clearly, "Everyone should remember these menus from the Yule Ball. They are used the same way as they were back then. All I can say now, is 'Dig in.'"

Hermione ordered herself pork chops, and started eating. Her eyes wandered around the room, and she waved to a few people who greeted her. Then her eyes landed on Malfoy. He was looking past Blaise, who was sitting across from him, and for a second his gray eyes met her brown ones. Hermione looked away and glanced at Harry, who had just asked her a question.

"What Harry? I'm sorry, I wasn't paying attention."

"I asked what you think we'll be doing tonight. Surely Dumbledore didn't call us all here just to feed us," Harry's green eyes twinkled in confusion and mischief.

"Are you sure about that Harry?" Ron Weasley cut in, a smile on his face and his fork halfway to his mouth. "He could just think that some of us aren't eating properly and arranged for us all to come here and be fed." Hermione shook her head in amusement.

"Somehow, I don't think that's the case, Ron," she said, her lips twitching in a small smile. She turned back to Harry, and said, "No, I don't know what we're here for. Or what we're supposed to do, never having been to a reunion before. Maybe we'll just hang out and talk to old friends, catch up on things."

Something in Harry's eyes as he nodded and said, "Yeah, that's probably what we'll be doing. Maybe some dancing too, since the Hall looks arranged for it," that made Hermione think that he knew something about it that he wasn't telling them. She was just about to ask, when Dean bent over and started talking to Ron about Quidditch again. Harry was quickly drawn into the conversation, leaving Hermione there to think.

* * *

_We had been standing there alone, in the graveyard. Waiting for Voldemort to appear, knowing that soon Remus would lead him there. That had been the plan anyway. None of us had expected him to walk out of the darkness behind them, for him to kill two of us before anyone knew he was there._

_That's when the final battle had begun. Harry had drawn Voldemort away from the rest of us, so that he could do no more damage. When the Deatheaters finally arrived, we were ready. We had all fought bravely, using the Unforgivable curses to defend ourselves and bring down our enemies._

_It wasn't long until the Deatheaters had lost, and the rest of us could watch the battle between Voldemort and Harry. Voldemort was growing anxious, and he tried continually to make Harry lose, to kill him._

_But in the end, Harry had won. He had fired the spell that I had made just for him, just for Voldemort. It was a spell with both the complexities of love and hate in it, one that could only kill someone who lived on hate and whose only weakness was love. Firing this spell, Harry ended it all._

That has been a year ago, the exact date had been the 20th of May. Harry had only been 19, his birthday two months away. Now he was almost 21. In that year, a lot of things had changed. Harry was happy now, and he had funded the very place that Hermione worked at. Ron and Luna were engaged, the official date wasn't set yet, but Hermione knew it would be sometime this summer. Luna had told her and Ginny the last time she had seen them.

Hermoine sighed and snapped out of her train of thought. The war had caused all of them to grow up so fast, and it had cost them a ton of things. She shook her head sadly, and looked over at Harry and Ron. They were still talking, and Harry was laughing at something Dean had said. Hermione started thinking again, this time about how surprised she had been when she found out that Draco Malfoy, the person she disliked above all others, had not become a Deatheater. He had been defying them for three years before the final battle, and he had been there fighting alongside her the night Harry killed Voldemort. If she wasn't mistaken, it had been Draco who had killed his father.

Hermione again shook herself from this train of thought, and focused on the staff table. Professor Snape was up there, sitting to the left of Dumbledore and talking with the Astronomy teacher. Professor McGonagall was on the right of Dumbledore, and she was deep in conversation with the Headmaster. Hermione looked to the far end of the table and saw Hagrid sitting there, drinking from his glass before looking around the room. She thought that he might be looking for Harry, so she waved in his direction. He noticed that and glanced over there, waving back at her as he spotted Hermione.

By now, the food had long been gone, replaced by desserts which had been eaten just as quickly. Glancing back at Dumbledore, she noticed that he was getting to his feet again. She nudged Harry, who looked at her and then at Dumbledore and told the other boys to be quiet.

He bid everyone to back up against a wall, and with a flick of his wand the tables all disappeared; the Hall changed into the perfect dance floor. To make the place really feel like a party, he dimmed the lights and enchanted the candles and the floor to start shifting colors. Bright pinks, blues, greens, purples and yellows flashed across the room, matching their rhythm to that of the music which was now playing.

Harry, Ron and Hermione instantly were out on the dance floor. Harry got bored of dancing after the first few songs, but Ron stayed out there with Hermione until the first slow song of the night came on. Both went over to the refreshment table, and got glasses of punch before heading off to find Harry. He was out in the Entrance Hall, which is where all the tables had been moved to. He was sitting and talking to Parvati, Lavender and Dean when Ron sat down on the other side of him. They greeted each other, and Parvati and Lavender started talking to Hermione about the usual. Make-up, boys, fashion and everything else in magazines.

The dancing lasted for hours. By the time Dumbledore called it quits, it was around midnight. Professor McGonagall came around to all the tables, and ushered everyone back into the Great Hall, saying Dumbledore had something important to say. Once everyone was back inside, and was paying Dumbledore their attention, the old wizard stood and said in a perfectly clear voice,

"I hope you have all had fun tonight. That was one of the reasons for getting you all together again after all. Tonight, I have a task for all of you though. Every person in this room is going to be partnered up with someone who belonged to a different House. For the next two months, you will stay with your partner. You will spend the first month either being the host for your partner, or staying at your partner's house. The second month, you will swap with your partner. Any plans you have will be done with your partner.

To answer the question that you must all be asking, yes you do have to do this. I have notified your bosses, for those of you who have jobs. When you are playing host, you are allowed to take the first week off. It is optional, so don't feel like you have to take it off. When you are staying with your partner, you are being forced to take the entire month off work. I have already arranged everything, so don't worry. All you have to do is tell your boss about your decision for the first week. As soon as I pair you up, please leave the Hall. Professors McGonagall and Snape are waiting in the Entrance Hall to give you directions and answer any questions you may have.

The pairs are as follows:

Ron Weasley and Blaise Zabini."

Ron got up and waved goodbye to Harry and Hermione, a not-so-sullen expression on his face.

"Dean Thomas and Hannah Abbott.

Susan Bones and Terry Boot.

Harry Potter and Pansy Parkinson."

Neither Harry nor Pansy seemed to be upset about them being stuck together. Hermione thought back to sixth year when Pansy and Blaise had befriended the Trio and decided that so far both Harry and Ron had gotten off fairly easy.

"Padma Patil and Lavender Brown.

Sally-Anne Perks and Vincent Crabbe.

Parvati Patil and Gregory Goyle.

Draco Malfoy and Hermione Granger."

Hermione blinked in surprise. She hadn't been expecting that. Those few people around her gasped and gave her looks of pity, everyone knowing that that particular pair did not get along. At all. However, Hermione stood up and met Draco at the doors, walking through to the Entrance Hall hearing the names, "Neville Longbottom and Lisa Turpin" being called out.

After asking Professor McGonagall every question she could think of, Hermione left Hogwarts with Draco Malfoy. They were going to receive a letter from Dumbledore tomorrow morning telling them who was staying at whose house. That gave time for the host to ready the house for the guest, and the person staying enough time to pack and make any final arrangements. The two month "project" didn't start until July 1st, in exactly two days.

As Hermione slipped into bed that night, setting her alarm clock for 7 in the morning, she couldn't help but think, 'This is going to be the worst two months of my life,' before drifting off into an uneasy sleep.

* * *

**A/N:** And so begins the first chapter of Reunion. I don't know when I'll update, probably in a week. Maybe earlier, depending on how much writing I get done. I hope you guys liked it. I have a descriptiveness problem: I describe things in too much detail. I was trying not to in this fic, but if I did don't hesitate to tell me. Okay?

Please review. Please? I'll hand out cookies when I update! Yes? Okay then, cookies it is!  
-Sayaku-


	2. Shopping and Arguments

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Harry Potter or anything related to the guy. Draco Malfoy however... No I don't own him either. Unfortunately.

**A/N:** Here'e the second chapter. It's a bit earlier than I thought it would be, but I stayed up last night and typed it. Apparently I still had some left over inspiration from the first chapter. Here's thanks to my two wonderful reviewers, and you guys get as many virtual cookies as you want:

_EmilyEB_: Here it is, hope you like it as much as the first one!  
_Amber_: Thanks, and you're right. I thought about that too: How does he make them. Lol. He's still a powerful wizard, so he can control anything he wants to basically. I think that the students are afraid of him really, or maybe they thought that he would "punish" them if they didn't go along with it. I won't tell his real reason for doing it though, it would spoil the ending I have planned.

Well, on with chapter two: Shopping and Arguments...

* * *

Hermione woke up the next morning to her alarm clock beeping almost hysterically. She turned it off, and after grabbing her clothes she went into the bathroom and took a shower. Then she went downstairs and ate breakfast. By the time she was done washing the dishes, the owl promised by Dumbledore came soaring through the window.

She hastily grabbed the letter and read through it quickly. Malfoy was coming to her house first. She could take the first week of work off. She had to arrange something for her and Malfoy to do during the time he was here. She didn't have anything planned, and she didn't want to hear Malfoy complain of boredom. It was bad enough he was going to be in her house at all. Before she did any of that planning however, she had to clean.

Hermione was a very tidy person. Everything had a place, and nothing was ever out of it's place. Her house was already clean, but that didn't stop her from cleaning it anyway. After she had cleaned the entire house, from top to bottom, Hermione went into one of the spare bedrooms and made sure nothing of hers was in the room. Only when she was sure that there was nothing in the room that Malfoy could complain about did she let herself relax. Hermione went into her study, and pulled out her laptop. She was thinking of stuff that they could do, simple stuff like rent some movies or play some board games. Suddenly she wondered if Malfoy owned any muggle clothes. 'He has to have some muggle clothing,' she thought desperately. 'If he doesn't, I'll have to take him shopping. Maybe we should do that first. I'll ask him when he gets here.'

**

* * *

**

While Hermione was busy planning all of this, Draco was at his manor, staring at the letter in his hand in dismay. He knew things had changed between them, that Hermione didn't hate him anymore, and that he didn't exactly hate her either. Living with her though, was going to be completely different.

'What am I supposed to wear?' he thought, his eyes overcast as he looked through the letter again. '"Pack anything that you feel necessary to bring with you."' Well, that included everything he owned. 'Let's narrow this down a bit. I need clothes. I'll pack the two muggle outfits that I have, and some robes. That wasn't so hard. Now for other stuff…'

He walked through the manor, muttering to himself and calling for house elves to get him the things he needed. By lunch he was pretty sure he had everything packed and then he remembered his owl. He didn't want to leave him here, but he doubted Hermione would have anywhere to put him. 'I can just hire someone to watch after him, or order the house elves to take care of him for me. No, they're afraid of him and I don't know anyone who would want to watch him. He isn't very nice to people he doesn't trust, and that out rules everyone but Blaise and Pansy. They're probably busy packing though, and they've got owls of their own to look after. Hmm. I should write to Granger and ask her if she has somewhere to keep owls at her house.'

With that Draco summoned parchment and a quill, and scribbled down a quick letter to Hermione, asking about owl lodgings and where they should meet the next day. He turned to his owl, and tied the letter to his leg saying as clearly as he could, "Take this to Hermione Granger. You remember her don't you Falon?" The bird clicked his beak, as if saying that he knew who Draco was talking about, and then soared off.

* * *

Hermione was startled out of sleep by a loud pecking noise. She hadn't even noticed that she had fallen asleep, she was so busy working on filling the next three weeks with things to do. She rose and went over to the window, opening it and allowing a rather large eagle owl to come in. She recognized the owl almost instantly as Malfoy's. 'What's he writing to me for?'

She attempted to take off the letter, but was rewarded with a deep cut on her finger. She frowned at the owl, who only stared back at her as if mocking her. She tried again to take the letter from the bird, to be yet again snapped at. Hermione grabbed an unopened bag of owl treats off of her desk and gave the owl three of them before he let her take the letter off of him.

'Finally,' she thought as she shook her head at the bird. It waited patiently for her to read, and Hermione guessed that Malfoy was expecting a reply. Sure enough, he only asked questions, all of which Hermione answered. Then she asked him some questions of her own. Like if he had any muggle clothing. Then instead of waiting for him to answer, she added, 'Just bring some money with you and most likely we'll use it for clothes if you don't have any.' The bird, sensing that she was done, grabbed the letter in it's beak before Hermione could even sign it, and was flying out into the night before she could call it back.

* * *

The next morning dawned fairly bright. Hermione had woken up earlier than normal in order to pick up Malfoy on time. While eating breakfast she wrote a letter to Harry, telling him that she was the host for the first month, and that she would indeed be taking the first week off. She sent this on with her owl, and continued getting ready to meet Malfoy.

Hermione Apparated into the Leaky Cauldron ten minutes before she needed to. It was good to be early, she had decided that a long time ago. She sat down at the bar and ordered a water to drink while waiting, and five minutes later there was another pop, and Draco Malfoy stood about ten feet away, looking around for her. Hermione swiveled her chair around and called out his name. He turned and smirked when he saw her.

"Shall we go?" he asked, not even caring to say hello. Hermione nodded and said,

"Since you don't know where my house is, we'll floo there. Is that okay?" Without waiting for him to answer, she stood up and walked over to the fireplace. Turning to him again she added, "Just say 'Hermione Granger's house.' It'll take you right there." She threw a handful of floo powder into the fire, and said "Hermione Granger's house" before stepping into the fireplace and disappearing. He followed as closely as possible, and when he entered the house he looked around to see Hermione standing next to the fireplace smiling.

"Do you want a tour of the house now, or after you put your stuff away?"

"After would be nice," he replied, trying to keep his voice as normal as possible. He really didn't want to be here, yet he didn't know why he was dreading it so much. 'What the hell is wrong with you? It's just Granger.' She led him up to his room, and while he put his stuff down she looked him over.

Just to be safe, he had worn the comfier pair of muggle clothing he had. He was wearing black jeans, and a dark green t-shirt, finished with black tennis shoes. 'He's taller than I remember,' Hermione thought as she looked the 5 foot, 11 inches tall man up and down. His hair was still the same color she remembered it being, but he no longer gelled it like he had in school. Now it hung loose around his head, and when he bent forward to put down his bags a few strands fell into his eyes. As he straightened up again, she noticed that his eyes were the same gray color they had been back then also. 'I guess he hasn't changed all that much.'

Draco seemed to notice that she was checking out his appearance. He took the time to look the Gryffindor girl over as well. She was shorter than him, but only by three inches or so. Her hair had tamed a little over the years, and it reached to her mid-back. She too was wearing jeans, though they were blue. She had on a light purple shirt with the outline of an owl on the front. White tennis shoes competed the tomboyish look she seemed to be going for. He noted that she wore very little make-up, in fact he couldn't tell if she was wearing any at all. Her brown eyes were taking in his appearance with a semi-praising look, and he knew that he had picked the right thing out to wear this morning.

Smirking at her he asked, "Were you planning on giving me that tour today, or tomorrow?" Hermione looked up at him and rolled her eyes.

"Today if you promise to be nice, you impatient little ferret," she replied. Before he could retort, she walked out of the room, motioning for him to follow.

"Yes I know I'm impatient, Granger, but that was only because I didn't like the way you were looking at me."

"I wasn't looking at you in any particular way, Malfoy. I was seeing what you had done to your hair." Hermione lied, hoping he wouldn't notice that she had in fact been looking at him in a certain way.

"Sure you were," he muttered, noticing how he was making her blush, and enjoying every minute of it. They stopped at a door which obviously led to a bathroom.

"Do I actually have to tell you that this is the bathroom, or can you figure that out yourself?" Hermione asked, her voicing lilting as she teased him.

"I'm pretty sure I figured that out myself," Draco said, his voice laden with sarcasm. "Though I'm sure you adding it into the question might have helped a little bit." By now they had reached the end of the hall, where another door stood. Hermione stopped here, but didn't bother going in or opening the door.

"This is my room," she said. "You are not allowed in there for any reason, unless I tell you to come in. Understand?" When Draco nodded, she continued. "Good, because I don't want you going into my room. If you do, I'll curse you into oblivion. And that's a promise not a threat." She smiled innocently at him and went downstairs. He shook his head and followed her.

She showed him the kitchen, the other bathroom, the study, the living/family room, and finally the small owlery she had built outside for her owl, Magnum, and any visiting owls. Draco seemed to remember something, because he muttered an incantation under his breath. Suddenly his owl came flying towards them, and landed on Draco's outstretched arm.

"Did you create that incantation?" Hermione asked, somewhat hoping he had because she had never heard of it before. When he nodded she asked, "Does it only work on your owl, or for you?"

"No, during the incantation you say the bird's name and the owner's name. I can teach it to you if you want," Draco said that last part without stopping to think. 'Dang you Draco! Why'd you offer to teach it to her?'

Hermione looked surprised and said, "Yeah, that would be nice," and then in as an afterthought, "Thanks."

"No problem," Draco muttered, angry at himself for offering, and secretly happy that he had. Hermione showed him how to open the gate, and then showed him where everything was in the owlery. He put Falon on one of the perches, before giving him some food and water, and leaving with Hermione.

Once they got back into the house, Hermione said, "Well, that's all there is to the house. I have another spare bedroom, but I didn't think you needed to know that, so I left it out." Draco nodded absentmindedly, Hermione continued. "You said in that letter that you only had one more set of muggle clothes. Would you like to go shopping?"

He glanced at her, and noticed that she looked tentative, almost as if she was scared he would yell at her or something. He frowned in confusion, but she mistook it for something else. "I mean, we don't have to go today, we could go tomorrow, I just thought…"

"Today will be fine," he interrupted her. "Can we go now?" Hermione looked happier and nodded.

"Let me just grab my purse, we can Apparate to the Leaky Cauldron and go shopping downtown." Hermione disappeared upstairs for a brief moment, before rushing back downstairs again, this time clutching a denim purse and her house keys. She asked if he was ready, and when he nodded she Apparated with a small pop.

He appeared next to her, and for a second she paused. "Do we need to go to Gringotts and transfer some gold into muggle money for you?"

"No, I took care of it yesterday," he answered.

"Oh, that's good," Hermione said. After they exited the Leaky Cauldron and were walking down the sidewalk, Hermione asked, "Have you ever been shopping in muggle London before?" Draco shook his head no.

"But I have been in muggle London before," he added. Hermione nodded, and continued walking.

After a few minutes, "There's a nice men's clothing store down here. We can go there, and then maybe head to the mall. What do you think?"

"Sounds fine to me."

**

* * *

**

After a few hours of shopping it was starting to get dark and Hermione and Draco decided it was time to go home. They had bought a lot of clothes for Draco, but not so much that he wouldn't be able to fit them into his suitcase. When they got home, Hermione started cooking dinner, and Draco went upstairs to unpack all of his things.

"Geez," he muttered to himself. "I can't believe she made me buy all this crap. The chances of me wearing any of it after this month are slim to none." He hung up the clothes in the large walk-in closet, and folded his other clothes and put them into the dresser. Just as he was finishing he heard Hermione yell upstairs.

"Dinner's ready!" Hermione turned away from the stairs and walked back into the kitchen. She didn't bother waiting for Malfoy to come downstairs; she filled her plate and started eating before he had even entered the kitchen.

"Fine, don't wait for me," Draco said, glaring at Hermione. "I see how it is. Just don't expect me to be as nice when you're at the manor." Hermione shook her head and continued eating. Draco filled his plate and sat as far away from her as the table would allow before he started eating. "You cooked this?" he asked after a few bites.

Hermione looked up at him from the book she had been reading. "Yes, unlike some people I don't have house elves to do everything for me. If you're going to eat here, you'll cook it yourself or have leftovers." Draco sighed and nodded.

Then he said, "I can cook, you know. And I'm not lazy enough to expect you to do everything for me, though you should, seeing as you're the host, Mudblood." He watched in satisfaction as her eyes flared in anger.

"It's a good thing that you're not expecting me to do everything for you, because I refuse to do your laundry. You'll have to wash your own clothes." She smiled as she saw a spasm of horror cross the Slytherin Prince's face.

"Why should I sink to level of doing my own laundry? If anything, you're already there, why don't you do it?"

"Because Ferret, this is **my** house and I'm not going to _touch_ your laundry, let alone clean it for you." They sat there glaring at each other for awhile, before Hermione added in a nicer voice, "You can change the decorations in your room however you want, just don't make it permanent. I want to be able to change it back after you leave." With this she rose and flicked her wand over the dishes and the food. The food put itself into containers and placed themselves into the fridge, while the dishes cleaned and put themselves away.

Hermione supervised this before looking at Malfoy and saying, "I'm going to bed. You might want to do the same, and remember: **_don't come into my room_**." She turned away and went upstairs, leaving Malfoy alone.

"Why would I want to go into your room, Granger?" he voiced his thoughts out loud, as if there was someone there listening to him. After waiting for a few minutes, he too rose and cleaned his dish before going upstairs. When he reached his room, he looked around and thought about what he was going to do with the decorations. He decided he was going to make it look like his Head's bedroom had while he had been at Hogwarts.

He changed the white carpet to soft forest green, and the curtains on the windows to a dark gray. The lamps on the nightstands changed to black marble with green covers, while the nightstands themselves changed from pine to cherry. The queen bed also changed from pine to cherry, while the bedding was changed to match the room's décor of gray, green and black. The doors remained white, but there wasn't anything Draco could do about that.

'It doesn't look all that bad,' he thought as he changed into his pajamas, and got into bed. 'It's definitely different from the pastel and white color scheme she had been decorating the room with. I think it looks a lot better actually.' With these last thoughts, Draco drifted into sleep.

**

* * *

**

Draco woke up to sound of an alarm clock going off. It was coming from Hermione's room, but she must have had it set loud enough to wake everyone in the house up. He got up and with a flick of his wand, the bed was made. Grabbing his clothes, he headed towards the bathroom; only to see Hermione get there first. He ran forward but by the time he got to the bathroom, Hermione had closed and locked the door.

"Come on, Granger, I should get to take a shower first! I'm the guest!" He roared, pounding on the door. In answer to him, Hermione started laughing and then humming, before her voice was drowned out by the sound of water running. "That's not fair!"

Sulking, Draco went back into his room and sat on the bed. After about twenty minutes he heard the water shut off, and about five minutes later a fully dressed and happy-looking Hermione came out of the bathroom.

"Finally, you're out of the bathroom," he said, just loud enough the make sure that he was heard. Hermione frowned.

"I wasn't in there that long. Stop whining you big baby," she retorted. When Draco passed her on the way to the bathroom, he said,

"Why don't you be a good host and make me some breakfast?"

Hermione's frown deepened. "What do I look like, your maid?" When Draco nodded, she smacked him upside the head. "I am not your maid!" She attempted to hit him again, but he ran into the bathroom and locked the door.

"You got the shower first and I had to wait all that time for you to come out. The least you could do is make breakfast," he told her from his safe spot, hiding behind the door. Hermione sighed in mock-defeat.

"Alright, but I'm not doing it for you. I happen to be hungry." The end of her sentence was drowned out by the sound of running water, and Hermione glared at the door. Shaking her head she went downstairs and started making scrambled eggs. She was almost done when Harry Apparated into her living room.

"Smells good, Hermione," Harry said as he walked in and sat down at the table.

"Good morning, Harry. Where's Pansy?"

"Still sleeping. I didn't want to wake her up so I left her a note saying where I was going. Hopefully, I'll be back before she wakes up anyways." Hermione nodded, and Harry continued. "I stopped by to see who you got as a partner, and to talk to you about work. You said you were taking off the first -"

Harry was cut off by Malfoy, who was standing on the stairs in Hermione's bathrobe. "Granger, where are the towels?" Harry's eyes widened when he heard Malfoy's voice, and he turned to Hermione with a disbelieving look on his face. Hermione didn't pay any attention to Harry, but she did tell Draco that the towels were on the shelves behind the door, and if he had looked before asking he would have found them without her help. Once he went back upstairs, she turned back to the stove.

"Malfoy, is your partner?" he asked incredulously. Hermione simply nodded and continued cooking the bacon and sausages. Harry shook his head. "I can't believe Dumbledore would even think of putting you and Malfoy together. That's just… mean." Hermione nodded in agreement, and took the sausages off the stove.

"What were you saying before Malfoy so rudely interrupted?" Hermione grabbed three plates, and set one in front of Harry, putting the other one as far away from them as possible, while keeping the third for herself.

"I was going to ask you if you were sure that you wanted to take the first week off, but now that I see who your partner is, I think it's best that you do. Can you pass the bacon?" Harry grabbed the bacon that Hermione handed him and continued. "I don't think bringing Malfoy to Marauders would be the smartest idea. He probably doesn't have the best influence on kids. He hasn't done anything bad to you has he?"

"Surprisingly no, he hasn't. We've just had a few small arguments, but that's all. He seems to have changed, at least a little bit. He's not as immature as he used to be." At this point, the topic of conversation entered the room, and stopped when he saw Harry sitting at the table.

"What's _he_ doing here?" Draco asked Hermione, curiosity evident in his voice.

"_He_ is my friend, and when you have friends, they usually come to visit you. _He_ also happens to be my boss, and we were talking about work," Hermione stated in matter-of-fact way. "I hope you don't mind."

"No, I don't. I just wasn't expecting to walk into your kitchen and see Wonder Boy sitting there. You could have warned me."

"What for? He's my guest, it wasn't like he came to attack you or something," she replied before sighing heavily. "Just grab your plate and eat, please."

Draco complied, before curiosity got the better of him again. "You said he's your boss?" Hermione nodded and opened her mouth to tell Draco about her job, but Harry beat her to it.

"Yeah, Hermione's the principal of the kindergarten I founded. It's called the Marauders Playhouse. You might have heard of it," he paused while Draco nodded. "She also teaches the Early Transfiguration class."

"You have kindergarteners learning Transfiguration? How? They don't have their wands yet do they?" Draco asked, disbelief sketched across his face.

Hermione smiled. "No Malfoy, they don't have their wands yet. They don't do magic. I just teach them about Transfiguration, and demonstrate when the need arises. Simple as that," she shrugged. "They like it a lot. You'll see next week."

Draco nodded, and for the rest of breakfast talked with Harry about Quidditch among other things. Occasionally, a topic that Hermione liked to talk about would come up, and she would join in. Soon Harry and Draco were talking like old friends, and relating things between their lives. Hermione couldn't help but smile, who would have thought that over breakfast the two could almost be considered friends.

About halfway through the conversation on why Dumbledore had them do this, Harry leapt from his feet and Disapparated. Draco frowned and turned to Hermione for an explanation, who simply said,

"He must have remembered about Pansy. I'm sure she's awake by now." Draco nodded, and without thinking washed all the dishes with a flick of his wand. Hermione raised an eyebrow and said, "Thanks, I was going to do that. We don't have anything to do today, so you can do whatever you want. I'll probably be in the study working on some stuff for Marauders."

"Okay," Draco said. He stood up and followed Hermione into the study. "I'll just sit here and read I guess." After about an hour of silence, where Draco flipped through some books, unable to find anything interesting and Hermione worked on some paperwork that had been owled in, Hermione turned to him.

"You can go watch TV if you want." After receiving a blank look, she said, "Come on, follow me. I'll show you." She walked out of the study and stopped before a big black box. Grabbing the remote, she flipped through some channels until she came to the movie channel. "Here, why don't you watch Star Wars. I think you'll like it." She popped some popcorn and handed it to him. "Maybe we'll go out for dinner tonight. What do you think?"

Draco nodded distractedly. He was to absorbed in the movie to pay attention to anything Hermione said. She just smiled and went back to working in the study. After another hour though, she came back out and watched the rest of the Phantom Menace with Draco. After that they watched the second Star Wars movie, and ate grilled cheese sandwiches for lunch.

By the time the second movie was over, Draco was completely fascinated by the TV. "How does this thing work?" He asked Hermione, who showed him how to work the TV, VCR and DVD players. "This is awesome! How come wizards don't have TVs? They should!" Hermione laughed at his childish remark, but didn't reply. Instead she grabbed her house keys (just in case) and her purse and said,

"Come on, let's go out to dinner tonight. I'll even let you pick where we go." Draco named the restaurant he wanted to eat at, and they left. A few hours later they returned, stuffed and tired. Hermione collapsed on the couch, and said,

"I'm sleeping in tomorrow. You can take a shower first, but only if you fix breakfast as well. Deal?"

"Deal." Draco confirmed. "Now, I'm going to bed." He turned and walker up the stairs, heading for his room.

"Good night, Malfoy," Hermione called up the stairs. Draco didn't answer and a short while later, Hermione also went upstairs and went to sleep.

* * *

**A/N: **I don't know when I'm going to update after this. Soon hopefully. I have to write it out still, and think about it more. Hope you all liked the second chapter. It was longer than the first one, and I'll try to keep all the chapters about this length, but there are probably going to be shorter ones. Hope nobody minds.

Another thing, seriously, if there are any mistakes or anything tell me okay? I want to make this the best story it can possibly be. If you have any questions, feel free to ask them. I'll try to answer them to the best of my ability. I won't tell you anything that has to do with the plot though... laughs evilly Okay, I'm better now. Please review, your thoughts are appreciated.

It's possible I'll hand out morecookies next time I update if you review.Maybe I'll hand out cakes instead... what do you think?  
-Sayaku-


	3. Pushing Her Limit

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Harry Potter. Surprising huh?

**A/N:** Hey, is everyone excited about the 6th book! I am! Only eleven more days!  
Thanks to everyone who reviewed. I decided to stick with the cookies, so here's a cookie to everyone who reviewed. Before I list you all, I wanted to say that because some of you reviewed the first chapter and asked questions, I'm going to answer those questions here even if you didn't review for the second chapter yet. That might be confusing so I hope you got the message there.

_Aquiliusdivine_: It's not relevant to the story at all, but yes two people died. In the first chapter, when Hermione is thinking about the final battle it says that Voldemort shot down two of their fighters. I decided that those two people are Justin Finch-fletchley and Katie Bell. But like I said, it's not really relevant to the story line, so it didn't really matter who died. :)  
_Guilty until proven innocent_: Thanks again for reviewing. I hope you like this chapter as well.  
_Slytherin-kittycat_: I'm just as flattered that you bothered reading this at all. It's not relevant either, but Draco changed simply because of his mother and his father. He hates his father and he loves his mother and his mother asked him not to join the Deatheaters. Another reason why he joined the "light" side was so that after the war he wouldn't have to take orders from anyone. I can't wait to write the chapters were Draco goes to Marauders. It's going to be fun!  
_EmilyEB_, _Kandygurl4_, and _IrethMalfoy_: Thanks for reviewing.

To everyone, here's chapter three. Hope everyone likes it.

* * *

"Wake up, Sleeping Beauty," a voice said. Hermione thought that the voice sounded oddly familiar, but then again, she had just been dreaming about him. She pulled the covers up around her to drown out whoever was bothering her, but the voice wouldn't give up. "Fine, I'll have to wake you up the hard way then." Next thing Hermione knew, the voice was right next to her ear, and with an overly loud "BOO!" her eyes shot open, and she sat straight up in bed.

Draco Malfoy was sitting next to her on the bed, laughing so hard it looked like he was going to die from lack of oxygen. She narrowed her eyes, and said in a dangerously soft voice,

"I thought I told you that you weren't allowed in my room." At this, Draco managed to stop laughing and looked her in the face.

"Well yeah, but knocking on the door didn't help, and neither did yelling from outside the room. I couldn't think of any other way to wake you up. And it worked didn't it?" He turned to her and put on his best innocent face while Hermione continued glaring at him.

"And _why_ did you feel you had to wake me up?"

Draco just smiled confidently at her. "I already took my shower, and went downstairs to make breakfast. The only problem is: there's nothing in your kitchen I can make breakfast with. No food anyways. I _did_ look. How am I supposed to make breakfast for you now?" Draco frowned as he finished, but then changed his expression to that of depressed. "Oh woe is me. All I wanted to do was make my wonderful hostess breakfast. How should I go about doing that without ingredients?"

Hermione rolled her eyes and pushed the melodramatic boy off her bed. "You can start by getting out of my room, and finish with getting yourself ready to leave. If what you say is true, it looks like we have some more shopping to do," she finished in a sing-song voice.

Draco groaned as he heard Hermione mention shopping, but when she stood over him and kicked him in the leg, he got up and ran out of the room, closing the door as he left. She grabbed her clothes and headed for the bathroom. Pausing, she frowned and muttered a simple locking spell at the door. That should keep him out long enough for her to hop in the shower and finish getting ready.

Sure enough, when Hermione headed into the kitchen, every cupboard was empty. The fridge didn't have anything that was safe to eat in the morning, and even her milk was running dangerously low. Hermione sighed dejectedly.

'I just made sandwiches yesterday, how come I didn't notice the lack of food? I guess I was too busy worrying about having Draco in my house. Wait… did I just call Malfoy, Draco?' Hermione shook her head to clear her thoughts and walked into the living room. Draco was sitting on the couch, watching TV and looking like he could stay there all day.

"Come on Malfoy, we have to go buy some food before you starve. Heaven knows that would be such a terrible thing," she said as she grabbed her wallet from the coffee table, sarcasm dripping from every word.

"Ouch. Are you always such a wonderful person in the morning, or is it just me?" More sarcasm, this time coming from the "starving" Draco Malfoy.

Hermione smiled. "I like to think that it's just you, or because of you. Now would you get your butt off my couch and come on already?"

"I'm coming. Geez woman, don't get your robes in a twist. Where are we even going?" Draco got up and slouched over to the door where Hermione was waiting for him, exasperation filling his voice.

Hermione ignored his question but said, "It's about 10:30 now, so we could go eat breakfast first if you want to. You know, to save you from starving," she paused here as Draco's face lit up and he nodded enthusiastically. Was it just her or was he reaching all new emotional extremes this morning?

"Then we can go shopping." As Draco's face fell she added, "I don't care how much you hate shopping, you are coming and you are going to behave. Is that clear young man?" Draco looked at her with disgust etched on his face, only to see her smiling and fighting back laughter. He rolled his eyes, but nodded all the same.

"Fine Mudblood, can we go already?" The Malfoy family smirk had finally made it's appearance, along with an obvious look of mischief. Hermione frowned at the word "Mudblood" but then again this was Malfoy she was talking to, so she let it slide while using another clichéd nickname.

"Sure thing Master Ferret," Hermione held the door open to a now fuming Malfoy, beckoning him through before she herself went outside. Smiling triumphantly, she walked towards a small silver car. Giggling silently, she walked around to the passenger side, motioning for him to follow. Opening the door with a large flourish, Hermione stated in a clear voice, "Your carriage awaits Sir."

Draco by now was beyond fuming, but he got inside the car anyway and held his tongue until Hermione had seated herself and started the car with a pair of keys she pulled from her pocket.

"What the hell was that all about?" The very annoyed Draco asked, his eyes flashing dangerously in her direction. At this Hermione started giggling uncontrollably, which only served to making Draco more upset. 'Two can play at this game,' he thought, calming himself down and letting his trademark smirk slide back into place.

When they arrived at the restaurant, Draco put on the best 'miserable' face he could manage (which was a fairly good one) and pouted as he walked behind Hermione. He whined all the way to their seats, and when they had sat down and Hermione turned to glare at him, he said in a childish voice, "Don't look at me like that. I don't like it here."

Hermione gave him a worried glance and said, "Really? Well, you're just going to have to deal with that aren't you?" Draco, who had nodded when she asked him 'really' was now slouched down in his seat, pouting. Hermione couldn't help but think that this would be very funny if it wasn't happening to her.

"Draco Malfoy, you are 21 years old. Start acting like it!" Hermione hissed across the table of the booth they were seated at as she saw the waiter returning with their food. To this, Draco only slouched further down, but flashed her a quick smile/smirk before pouting again.

The waiter set down their foods and raised an eyebrow at Hermione, who smiled and said, "He's having an off-day today. He suffers from a rare mental disease, and it causes him to get terribly upset. I'm sorry about all of this." The waiter nodded and left, glancing over at Draco again before going back into the kitchen.

Draco waited for the waiter to disappear before rounding on Hermione. She was cutting her pancakes into small pieces and was too busy to notice the death glare that Draco was sending her. After a while though, she looked up and asked in an innocently confused voice, "Why aren't you eating your waffles Draco? Is there something wrong with them?"

Draco's glare only deepened, though he did start cutting his waffles up rather aggressively. Hermione couldn't help but smile at how upset she had gotten him. She knew she was going to pay for it later, but it was to much fun to stop now. Once they were safely back in the car Hermione added, "You know, none of this would have started if you hadn't woken me up like you did this morning."

"No, none of this would have happened if you hadn't been so bent on showing me to the car in the most humiliating way possible," he returned almost instantly.

"I don't think so. Do not go blaming me for this. You're the one acting like a selfish, four year old brat. You knew trying to humiliate me would backfire, it always did in school and it did today. I don't see why you have to make everything my fault."

"That's because it is your fault. You're the Mudblood here. It's your job to claim all the screw-ups," Draco vehemently said as they drove towards the market. He felt something coil and uncoil deep down near his stomach, and he knew he had finally gone too far. Hermione refused to look at him, and they didn't say anything else until they reached the parking lot.

Hermione got out without even glancing at Draco, and after locking the doors walked away as though he wasn't with her. She grabbed a cart and started wheeling it around the store, grabbing anything she thought they needed, and completely ignoring the sulking Slytherin that was walking behind her. Draco kept shooting Hermione glances, trying to get her to look at him or talk to him and by the time they got to the checkout aisle, Hermione snapped.

"What?" she hissed at him as she paid for everything she had bought. She still refused to look at him, but Draco almost smiled in relief. At least she was talking to him again, or wasn't afraid to hiss at him. He didn't answer her, but followed her to the car and helped her put everything in the car in silence. When they got in the car, he turned to her.

"Look, what I said was wrong, and -"

"Mean, and rude and totally like something you would say?" Hermione asked, interrupting him not even halfway through his speech.

"No, well, yes but that wasn't what I was getting at." Hermione just huffed at this and started driving. "What I was going to say was, that what I said was wrong and I shouldn't have said it at all. I didn't stop to think about it, and if I had I wouldn't have said it. So I guess what I'm saying is that I," Draco gave a big sigh that caused Hermione to glance at him out of the corner of her eye. He was avoiding looking at her, but she could tell that what he was saying was sincere. When he finally turned to look at her he truly seemed to regret what he had said, she could see it in his eyes. "I'm … sorry." He finished by lowering his head in a defeated and shamed way before turning back to the window.

"You're forgiven, I guess. Just don't do it again," Hermione muttered, focusing her attention on the road and not on the slumped figure in the passenger seat. He watched her silently as she drove, and he found himself semi-glad that she had accepted his apology. He didn't even really know why he had apologized, he had felt like he had no choice in the matter. He couldn't help but think that maybe it had to do with living with her. If he was already apologizing to her on the third day here, he didn't even want to think what he would be doing by the time he left.

His thought process was broken by Hermione pulling into the driveway. He help her carry everything into the house, but she dismissed his help in putting it all away. With a flick of her wand all the groceries put themselves away, and glancing at the clock, Hermione noted that it was already 2 o'clock. Walking into the living room, she found Draco already sitting in front of the TV, watching a re-run of the Brady Bunch.

"Having fun?" she asked, sitting next to him on the couch as he nodded. Then he turned to her and he gave her the tiniest smile possible before saying,

"Now that we have food, and because I didn't get to make breakfast, I'm going to make lunch. What do you want?" Hermione thought about it for a second and then shrugged.

"Whatever you want to make is fine. I'm not picky." Draco shrugged his shoulders and rose from the couch, heading for the kitchen. A half-hour later he came back out, carrying a platter of turkey sandwiches and a pitched of lemonade. Hermione couldn't help but laugh.

"Seeing as it's tea time, I thought we could have a tea party. Only with lemonade, and without those little cakes that people serve," he smiled at her before continuing. "We'll have to wait for those cakes, they're still baking." Hermione was watching him with awe.

"You know how to have a tea party?" she asked as he set down the platter and summoned two plates and cups.

"Of course I do Granger, you're forgetting who my mother is. Narcissa loves having tea parties, and during break I was invited to every single one of them. I know what I'm doing, trust me," Draco said as he filled her glass with the pink lemonade. He set it in front of her before filling his own glass. Then he set the platter in the middle of the table, and placed their plates in front of them.

In his most respectful voice, Draco turned to Hermione and said, "Would you like a sandwich? The ones on the left only have mayonnaise, while the ones on the right have everything on them. Sorry, but I didn't know which type you liked."

Hermione smiled and grabbed one of the mayo-only sandwiches and put it on her plate. "For future reference, I only like mayonnaise on turkey sandwiches. Thanks for considering it."

"What kind of host would I be if I didn't consider it, Granger?" Draco asked as he grabbed himself one of the sandwiches on the right.

"A very bad one," she admitted truthfully, smiling as Draco tentatively took a bite of his sandwich.

"Hey, they aren't all that bad. I was sure I was going to mess something up," he joked. Hermione laughed again and took a bite of her sandwich before nodding in agreement. Draco grabbed the remote to the TV and shut it off, turning to Hermione and saying, "What should we talk about while we eat?"

Hermione shrugged her shoulders, and returned the question. Draco stopped to think about it, and after awhile suggested that they just tell each other about themselves and what they did for a living. Hermione nodded and said,

"You know what my job is, but I don't know anything about what you do. Would you mind indulging me?"

"Have you heard of Malfoy Incorporated?" Hermione frowned, but then her face lit up in recognition and she nodded. "Well, I started the company and I run it. That's about it."

"That's all? Doesn't Malfoy Inc. own a bunch of companies and stores though? That must be harder than running a kindergarten," Hermione said, her brown eyes pointing at Draco expectantly.

"Yeah, I guess it is harder than running a kindergarten, but then again I just deal with the really important stuff. I have people who work on all the paperwork and everything like that, and I supervise. It's not as hard as everyone imagines it to be. Yes, Malfoy Inc. does own a lot of companies and stores. This might surprise you, but about half of the companies I own are muggle companies. I felt like branching out, and doing something out of the ordinary. This way more people know about me though, so I guess that could be a big factor also. My turn to ask you a question right?" Draco asked, and Hermione nodded. "Are your parents still alive?"

"Yeah, they live not to far from here. In the next town over actually. They were glad that I moved so close to them, but in reality I moved here so I could Apparate easier. This house isn't easy to spy on, so the chances of muggle neighbors seeing me disappear into thin air are very slim. How about you? I mean, I know your father isn't alive but you mentioned your mother," Hermione paled slightly when she spoke of Lucius. She hated him so much, but Draco must hate him more. 'Did I have to mention him?' she thought desperately, hoping that Draco wouldn't get mad.

On the contrary, Draco didn't get upset at all. "Yes, my mother is living in Hogsmeade, up in the hills. I bought her a house up there after I inherited the manor. That bastard didn't leave her anything," Draco frowned as he finished. "She likes it there though. It's quiet and she has time to do whatever she likes. The house isn't as big as the manor, but she wanted it that way. She has time to do what she loves now, so I'm happy for her." Hermione nodded silently. She had never heard Draco talk about his mother before, but she could tell that he loved the woman very much.

A peaceful silence surrounded them as they finished eating. Draco turned the TV back on after awhile, and they sat watching Pirates of the Caribbean: the Curse of the Black Pearl. Soon afterwards Hermione went up to bed, and Draco sat alone in the now dark family room. Telling Hermione about his mother had reminded him that he hadn't written to her in a while, so he snuck into Hermione's study and wrote her a letter talking about his first few days at Hermione's house.

He finished the letter and owled it using Falon. He hadn't asked for a reply, but Draco made sure that the owlery window was open just in case Narcissa kept him longer than he was needed. Then he headed off to sleep.

* * *

The next few days passed with little incident. Hermione worked on some paperwork for Marauders, and Draco watched a lot of TV. They started going on walks in the evening, because it was something Hermione had done before she found out that Draco would be coming to stay. Like usual, they got into a few arguments, but they always stopped before it escalated into something nasty. On Draco's fifth day there, Hermione had to pay the bills.

Hermione heard the mailman come, and she hurried to the door to get the mail. On the doormat there were four envelopes. Two of the four were bills that she had to pay, one was a letter from her parents (they never quite got the hang of owl post) and the fourth was a letter from her father's business. Dropping the bills in her study, Hermione opened her parents letter.

Her mother told her all about the new diet she was on, and invited her to go shopping with her next Tuesday. Hermione already had a piece of paper out and was politely declining when she noticed a post script. It was her father's handwriting and it said thatches should get a letter from his company. He had sent her tickets of some sort. Hermione glanced at the other envelope before turning back to the post script. It didn't say anything else about the tickets, except that Ron or Harry might like to go with her.

Hermione finished writing the letter to her mother, before opening the other letter. Inside were two tickets to a professional basketball game, for that Saturday night. Hermione was thinking of just giving them to Harry and Ron when an idea hit her. She didn't know if Draco had ever been to a basketball game, or if he knew anything about it at all, but she thought it would be fun to take him to see it. Maybe he would like it, after all he was into Quidditch, and they weren't all that different.

Smiling, Hermione wrote the date down on the calendar and hid the tickets in her purse. This was going to be fun.

* * *

**A/N: **Hope you liked it. I'll update soon, I promise. I might make you wait a week though, cuz I'm going to be really busy over the next fews days. I have to finish planning a party today, throw the party tomorrow, and then I'm going over to a friends house. So I'm not going to be able to update until at least the ninth.

I'll give everyone cakes next chapter if they review. Any type of cake you want.  
-Sayaku-


	4. Basketball Surprise

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Harry Potter, and I'm tired of saying it.

**A/N:**This chapter is so short. I'm sorry it's short but I'm suffering from some sort of mental block despite the fact that I have my entire plan written out and all I have to do is follow it and add some creativve stuff into it to make it a story. Anyway here's thanks to my reviewers, you all get chocolate cake:

_Slytherin-kittycat_: Lol, if the cake is what you wanted you got it. I had a blast at the parties, thanks!  
_EmilyEB_: I would have made it a Lakers game, but I didn't because they're in England and I didn't know if they had a Lakers team over there. Sorry, but since I didn't specify any sort of team you can imagine they're the Lakers.  
_Guily until proven innocent_: It was really chatty wasn't it? I kinda used that as a time filler I guess. Oops...

I know the tea party thing in the last chapter was a little ... wrong I guess you could say, but I didn't think it was all that weird. I mean, his familywere sophisticated wizards, they are Purebloods, and I can see Narcissa having family friends over for tea, and making sure her son was there. I don't know, maybe I'm just weird like that, but I'm glad it got come of you laughing.

Hope you like this chapter. Here it is:

* * *

The two days leading up to Saturday were uneventful and boring at best. Hermione and Draco, having nothing better to do, sat and talked about anything and everything until the day came. The hours seemed to inch by, and while Draco still didn't know about the game, he could tell Hermione was waiting for Saturday to come. Draco couldn't figure out why.

Saturday morning dawned sunny and warm. Hermione woke up early and got herself ready, made pancakes and waffles for breakfast and checked to make sure all the arrangements were set before Draco even woke up. When Draco came downstairs and saw Hermione sitting perfectly calm at the kitchen table, reading the Daily Prophet and eating pancakes he assumed it was a normal Saturday, and that the two of them would be sitting around the house all day doing nothing. Hermione was finding it hard to act like there wasn't anything special going on, but she managed it until it was time to leave.

"Draco, get your shoes on. We're going out," Hermione said around 2 o'clock. Draco raised an eyebrow at her, but Hermione just shook her head at him. "Hurry up or we're going to be late," she told him before she headed towards the car. Draco shoved his shoes on and followed her outside.

"What are we going to be late for?" Draco asked as he got in on the passenger side. Hermione just smiled and shook her head, starting the car and taking off. An hour later, a very bored Malfoy asked, "Where are we going?" Hermione rolled her eyes but didn't answer him. Draco heaved a sigh and slumped down in the seat.

Another hour passed and by now Draco was getting really impatient. Hermione hadn't answered any of his questions, and by the looks of it she wasn't going to until they arrived wherever they were going. After another hour of torturous silence, Hermione pulled into a parking lot and parked the car. As soon as they were out of the car Draco bombarded her with questions again.

"Where are we? What's so special about this place that we had to drive three hours just to get here? What's that huge building for? Why are there so many people here? I've only seen this many people gather together for a Quidditch game. What's going on?" He finally ended his stream of questions as they entered the "huge building" that he had been asking about. They went through the metal detectors, showed the security guards their tickets and were led to their seats in silence. Once they were seated, Hermione turned to Draco.

"This is a basketball court. I'm sure you've heard a little about basketball from the Muggles you do business with," Hermione paused here for confirmation, but Draco only shook his head. "You know how Quidditch is the wizarding sport? Well basketball is one of many Muggle sports. Two teams play with a bouncy orange ball, and try to throw it into those two hoops."

Draco interrupted her here. "So it's like Quidditch in that there are two teams, and they throw a ball around and try to score goals?"

"Yes! Each team has a hoop that they try to protect. Unlike Quidditch, there are no Keepers, so the whole team has to defend their hoop when the other team has the ball. Some people try to steal the ball, like Chasers-"

"Are there Seekers?" Draco asked with anticipation in his voice.

"No, there's only one ball so they don't need Seekers. They don't play on brooms either, they stay on the ground."

"What! Where's the fun in that?" Draco asked, disappointment evident on his face. "Only one ball, no Seekers, Keepers, or Beaters and you have to stay on the ground. That doesn't sound very fun."

Hermione sighed. "It's the way the game goes Draco. In a way, you're right. The entire team is made up of Chasers, but that's not the point. Muggles came up with tons of different ways to play sports without broomsticks, or flying balls, and basketball happens to be the closest one to Quidditch. My dad's company sent my tickets to the game, and I thought you would have fun watching a game like Quidditch played the Muggle way."

Draco nodded. "I see what you mean. I never knew Muggles had sports, let alone anything close to Quidditch. It sounds interesting enough." Hermione smiled at him and offered to go get corndogs and cotton candy since they had missed dinner. At five thirty the game started, and at first Draco was very skeptical of the whole thing. By the end of the first quarter though, he started really getting drawn into the game, and didn't even notice when Hermione left to refill her drink.

Halftime came around, and the coaches selected a few people from the crowd to participate in a quick mock-game. Draco asked Hermione what they were doing and when she told him, he shrunk down in his seat so that they wouldn't notice him. Hermione laughed at his antics, telling him they only picked people who wanted to go down and play. He looked at her doubtfully, before sitting up in his seat again, and relaxing as they started the mock-game.

At the end of the game, Draco dragged Hermione over to meet the players. After getting three of their autographs, Hermione laughing at him the entire time, Draco let her walk him to the car. Once they were driving and headed home, he turned to her and said,

"I had a great time, thanks for bringing me." Hermione smiled back at him before focusing on driving. The game hadn't ended until well after 8 o'clock, and they had a long drive in front of them. Draco talked about the game, and compared it to Quidditch the entire way home, only stopping when Hermione turned on the radio. He hadn't heard any of the Muggle bands yet, so he listened intently to them, bobbing his head up and down occasionally. When they finally got home they both went straight up to bed, falling asleep quickly.

Falon rapped on the window, waking Draco up way earlier than he had been planning on getting up. After taking the letter from Falon and watching him fly off, Draco got back in bed but found that he couldn't fall back asleep. Cursing, he got up and started getting ready for the day, eating cereal for breakfast before going into the living room.

Draco summoned the letter and instantly recognized his mother's neat handwriting. She had written about her job, and how she thought Dumbledore's idea was great, and she said that Draco shouldn't be complaining so much. Draco smiled and went into Hermione's study to write a response. He was sitting at her desk writing when he heard Hermione come up behind him. Turning around he smiled at her and explained what he was doing.

Hermione found it funny that when she woke up Draco was in her study writing what appeared to be a short story. When he told her that it was a letter to his mother, and that he was telling her all about the basketball game Hermione laughed and left him to it. She also had cereal for breakfast, being to lazy to actually fix anything, before going and watching TV. She had taped Law and Order and CSI last night, but hadn't been able to watch them because of the game. Soon afterwards, Draco joined her and when the shows were over they decided to visit Harry and Pansy. Hermione flooed Harry to see if it was okay that they come over, before they Apparated there.

They hung out with Harry and Pansy for the rest of the afternoon, eating dinner there and catching up on things until late at night. Draco and Pansy shared experiences with being the guest while Harry and Hermione talked about hosting, and how their guests were coping. Soon they got onto the topic or work, and Hermione told Harry that she thought Draco would do fine at Marauders, and even if he didn't she could just keep him in her office the entire time. Draco's reaction to being told that Hermione would just lock him in a room if he misbehaved was priceless.

Eventually they had to go home though because it was getting late and while Harry didn't really have to go to work because he just managed everything, Hermione did. Once they got home, Draco sent his letter off and Hermione went straight up to bed. As Draco laid in bed, trying to get to sleep he couldn't help but think that he would somehow have fun at Marauders tomorrow. He was good with kids, despite never having siblings, or very many friends in school. His last thoughts before drifting off to sleep were, 'Tomorrow is going to be great. Maybe Hermione will let me help with the Transfig class…'

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**A/N:** I hope you guys liked it.Next chapter isn't going to be up for awhile because I have other things I need to do. Sorry, but if you wait for a little bit hopefully you'll be rewarded with a nice, long chapter. Hopefully... 

Can you believe it: By the time this gets posted, Harry Potter and the Half-Blooded Prince will be out! I've pre-ordered it, but I still can't wait to read it! YAY! Yet again, I'll give you cake if you review, though with the book coming out I doubt you'll be very interested in anything but it. Oh well...  
-Sayaku-


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